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First Death Of Winter Hive

Well guys, as a first year beekeeper I was doing pretty good. I have 3 hive and noticed today that there was no activity in one. I inspected to find that the bees were clustered together and DEAD!!!! I did notice a number of hive beetles (about 15) that were dead also. I have been feeding my hives dry sugar for the past couple of weeks and did not see an excessive amount of beetles; maybe 1 or 2 which I killed.

When this happens, do you guys melt down all of the frames or do you save them to put in other hives in the Spring. It's Jan. 18 and about 40 degrees here in NC. Just had our first snow. What are your thoughts gang???

Re: First Death Of Winter Hive

Originally Posted by Mr.Beeman

Was it a large or small cluster? Was the queen dead in the cluster as well?

It looked like a large cluster to me. There were some bees dead on the bottom of the hive as well. I also noticed bees that looked like they were alive on some of the frames, but when I took the frame out they were dead as well. It's like everything just stopped and dies in its tracks.

Re: First Death Of Winter Hive

I didn't see any honey left. I put parchment paper across the top frames and poured dry sugar on top about 4 days ago. The sugar was gone so you may be right. I thought they had plenty of sugar though. Bummer.....